Over the years I’ve tried out various ways of improving my Mk1 Sunny, principally to make it more functional for the sort of easy touring I do. It is significant that many of the tricks described below were introduced to the Mk2 model - and the Mk3 model returned to full Nitrilon coating on all surfaces and so closely resembles my improved Mk1 Sunny.

Tubeless tyre valves for seat and footrest
I found a trimmed off car tyre tubeless valve jammed into the lilo-sized inflation holes in the OE seat and ‘footrest thwart pillow’ (right) enabled firm pressures without losing it all when you tried to jam in the plug.

This was at a time when I was desperate to make my Safari as wide (and therefore as stable) as possible. As an idea it worked fine but it means carrying a bike pump and I’ve since got rid of these inflatable bits on my Sunny for an Aire seat (below) and an Otter box to use as a foot rest.

Aire Cheetah seat, seat back board and footrest box
The Aire Cheetah seat (left) turned out to be no worse than the inflatable original but was a bit lighter. I've also set it up so I clip the seat to the boat's seat mounts (which originally used a knotted bit of rope) so I can take it out at camps. Plus, along with the box for a footrest (below), it's one less thing to pump up.

Firm back support is a problem with the OE seat; or to be precise, fitting points to hold the back of the seat upright as you push back with your legs. The Sunny Mk2 and current Mk3 model is better in this respect and, to cut a long story short, I've since imitated the seat gluing mounts from the side tubes to click to the seat top. Before that I tried propping the Aire seat against a plywood spreader board and then fitted an old contoured wooden stool back into the seat back to reduce the strain on the seat mounts. It worked OK but was a bit heavier. Since fitting on the side tube mounts (the real answer to this problem) I've reinstalled the much lighter bit of stiffening plastic which came with the Aire seat. Trying it out one day indoors I dozed off so it can't be bad (or I'm getting on a bit).

The OE inflatable footrest pillow was always too far away to be effective, even for me at 6' 1", so I replaced it with a Q/D 5010 Otter box (below left). However I then noticed the lower seat mount tabs (where the rope used to be) tearing from the strain of me pushing back so the box is now attached directly to the seat with adjustable slings. This way I now push from seat to box, only straining the sling which joins them together and not the boat mounts which the seat and box in position.

Although I find I'm happy to paddle with my legs lying flat, when you want to go for it a firm foot brace is much better but of course requires a fairly solid seat to push against. The long box-to-seat strap seems to work well. I discovered a side benefit; the straps can be pulled over my knees to make thigh braces (right); another possibly handy feature when the going gets rough. It's not like bracing directly off the hull or anywhere near as good as with a hardshell, but the Sunny is no slalom boat; it's more to achieve good paddle thrust using the core not the arms. And anyway, even in the roughest rapids I've done the Sunny feels stable enough without using thigh braces and if anything I prefer having my legs free to stick out to steady myself or fall out. The Sunny usually swamps long before things get hairy enough to tip it over.

Sometimes I have a feeling my butt ought to be a bit higher than my feet for optimal seating comfort (as in a canoe or rowing); perhaps the uninflatable Aire is a bit lower than the OE Gumoseat. It could be easily raised of course (stuff a life jacket underneath as a test) and when unloaded the sticks/poles/plank idea (see below) could fix the 'sag in the middle' tenancy all long IKs have with a bloater like me aboard. I shoved a bit of folded karrimat into the seat base to thicken it (it makes it more comfy as a camp seat too).

Low pro skeg
My first long trip down the Dordogne highlighted the hassle of the fixed skeg - and that was with an albeit flimsy smaller home-made version (right; fitted back-to-front which would not help!). Since then I’ve got the hang of paddling without the skeg but in the meantime I got a batch of  longer, 2mm thick skegs (above, click for a bigger picture) made and these are what I use most of the time if I use a skeg at all; usually in the sea. I may still have a few left to sell. Contact me if you want one (click my sig on the front IK page). Fyi: the new 'quick fit' black plastic 2009 Gumotex skeg is smaller, much more like mine.

Do you need a skeg?
Many newcomers to Gumboats find the huge 'optional' skeg to be essential for straight tracking and assume it's a consequence of crap IK design because normal hardshell kayaks and canoes manage fine without a skeg. In fact my few paddles in rental hardshells were no more straight than in IKs (which was one reason I never got into kayaks) but I now know the knack of straight tracking without a skeg can be acquired in an IK, just as it can in a hardshell.
I only discovered this one time on a shallow French river when even my low-pro skeg was dragging and grinding on the shallow 'rapids'. Next day I set off with no skeg and to my surprise and relief the Sunny tracked pretty well though not as effortlessly as with a skeg. A little finesse and occasional correction was required, especially if powering on, but a current did not have much to do with it (a back wind may do). Most times coming out of stronger rapids I would spin out as the current at the back of the boat was faster than at the front; I could fight it or I could just spin out and enjoy a momentary backward view.
Now I don't bother with a skeg if the river is shallow or quiet. Portaging, parking, sliding or dragging over weirs (above right) the boat is so much easier and it's a little more maneuverable in the water. I assumed that the length of my Sunny made this skegless tracking easier but the other day (May 2009) on the Ceze (south France, left) I tried the g-friend's short Mk1 Solar and found that it too was effortless to paddle straight with no skeg. With less experience, she was having more difficulty, but it proves that even an amateur paddler like me can get the knack of going straight in a Gumotex IK with no skeg.
I discovered I had the knack after a year with my Sunny, but a good technique while learning is to fix your eyes on a tree or marker on a distant bank and paddle very gently towards it, not looking away and keeping the nose of the boat in line with the tree. By using very light strokes you will see it can be done, though my very first go in a short and tippy Safari were absolutely hopeless, no matter what I tried, so give yourself a few weeks under skeg first. Once you know you can so straight slowly without a skeg, it's just a matter of adopting the same finesse under normal power. Only when you attempt the speeds of a Maori war party in attack mode will the deflection get too much; you can attack faster and harder with a skeg.
Out at sea or on busier rivers where you're more vulnerable I think I'd still choose to use a skeg.

Lashing points and loading
One of the limitations of the Sunny is a lack of lashing points - something that an Aire Super Lynx or FC Java have plenty of. I tried to glue a few on with what I thought were the right materials and technique, but half have since peeled off.

Another IK limitation is that half the actual width is taken up with air chambers, reducing the packing volume (if not necessarily payload) to less than a foot wide, especially with single side chamber boats like a Sunny (as opposed to twin chamber Grabner Holidays or Gumo Seakers). I have to say though, on the trips I’ve done – nearly a week along a tropical coast (above) with one resupply - the volume was adequate. It might not be the same story in a colder climate or when you need to carry more fresh water. The limits with the Sunny are weight as much as space; the freeboard is reduced and it swamps which at sea can be a hassle.

As is well known, the placement of loads has an effect on tracking (more critical without a skeg). In some pics you can see how my weight sinks the boat in the middle. To counteract this I generally try to pack the heavy weights at each end. Too heavy at the front is not so good for waves and rapids, but the Sunny swamps fairly easily in these conditions anyway; it’s only on flat water that good/bad baggage positioning is noticeable.

Trolley tech
A £10/1kg folding trolley is a handy way of transporting the boat around rail stations or airports. It folds up neatly and fits on the bow (right). In fact with a bit of adaptation I wonder if it could make an upside down set of wheels for portaging. The wheels on this black trolley are too narrow though; the load tips easily on rough pavements. And you get what you pay for: the tubing and construction are pretty flimsy. Protracted gumboat trolleying over rough surfaces and tracks will eventually mangle this lightweight trolley (my second) so it needs to be treated carefully.

On the Haute Allier river in France I used a heavier-duty and wider folding trolley (left, with the old original Sunny seat) which packed flat and handily tucked in under my legs between the tubes. Where weight is not a limitation (on trains and buses), I'd use this one but with any trolley a wide wheel track is the way to go. On the right we have Gumochums' Bjorn and Even's trollies which look light but may be on the narrow side. It all depends how far you're trolleying and if it's over rough ground.

Sometimes I wonder about an integrated backpack frame with wheels or a wheeled bag with more handles. Part of the reason the OE gumbag is tearing is that when you trolley up to some stairs you can only yank it by the top clips or the backpack straps. It's something to think about when the current gumbag tears to the point of no longer being a functional drybag.

Rigidity: hull bracing sticks or a 'draught plank'
I was eyeing up the 15-foot Feathercraft Java one time and noticed it's longitudinal alloy stiffening tubes (or so I thought - actually they were 'hull profiling' poles). While paddling the Tarn Gorge in 2007 I tried to imitate this idea to help stiffen the hull on my 12.5-foot Sunny. The handy gap where the side tube meets the floor tube was just right for jamming a stick in.

Can you see any difference whatsoever in the pictures on the right? It's supposed to show the boat with no load (top) - quite bent; the boat with a heavy load - low and relatively level (middle); and at the bottom with a light load with some straight branches jammed in (see below) - less bent than it would be. No, they all look the same...

I was going to buy a pair of broom handles in France but forgot so later by the Tarn river I found a couple of branches that were pretty straight over 5 feet and jammed them in between the floor and the side tubes more or less in the middle of the boat. My unscientific impression was that the Sunny was indeed more rigid, responsive and faster, leveling the boat out in the water. I’ve since found some light metal tubes (above) and may try again to see if it’s worthwhile. The fact that the river sticks popped out through some rapids shows how much the Sunny flexes in rough water. I've also recently noticed that Advanced Elements (whose 15-foot Advance Frame II Convertible and 13-foot StraitEdge II are worth a look), offer an optional 'Backbone' to stiffen up many of their boats) as well as using alloy ribs to "define the bow and stern, and improve tracking".

Lately I was advised that pumping up the floor after you've put the boat in the water for a few minutes will firm up the base because all IKs will lose a bit of pressure when pumped up in warm air and then put into cold water. I can't say it made much difference, though pumping up in the cool of the morning (as opposed to a hot afternoon) must help rigidity and so response. I also tried putting a 1-metre plank under the seat to reduce the sag of my 95-kg weight in the middle of the Sunny and must say this did seem to give me a handy extra inch or two of draught on the shallow Ceze in late May (with no skeg of course). Leaning back on the seat and taking the weight off your butt and onto your heels also unsags the middle of the boat and can mean the difference between getting through a shallow shingle rapid without punting or walking the boat through.
I also suspect that high-sided, twin-side beam IKs like the Gumotex Seaker (expensive, very heavy) or Grabner Holidays (expensive, much lighter) are more rigid longitudinally, but I've not tried one out yet.

Self draining hole
Paddling the Haute Allier required frequent visits to the bank - not to get money out but to drain the swamped boat. Turning it upside down is the quickest way of doing this thoroughly but can upset the tidy packing; tipping it up on end works less well as each pointy end is capped by a triangular patch of material (not sound on the Solars, interestingly). It's a handle of sorts but it also keeps some water in. Recognising this shocking design flaw I cut a 2-cm hole is this patch so I could just drag it up a steep bank to drain itself (right).

Out with the knife: making the Sunny a bailer?
I’ve considered making bailing holes (easily and reliably reversible with duct tape I found on the Safari, left) but am pretty sure the floor of the Sunny is below the water line with my 90-95kgs in it. Loads at either end (see triple picture above) help, as would the hull sticks or plank described above, along with a thicker seat pad. It would be something worth trying to not end up sitting in water. Lighter solo paddlers in a Sunny may get away with bailing holes without doing all these bodges because the boat won't sink so low in the water.

I speculate more on stability, centre or gravity (CoG), self-bailing floor thickness and so on right here.

Maintenance
All I ever do is rinse the boats after each trip, dry then and occasionally spray on some 303 UV protectorant. It's noticeable how the Sunny has lost it's new sheen in the sun over the years. Deflated and splayed out Gumboats dry very quickly. With a bit of wiping you can dry an Mk1 or -3 style, all-coated Sunny in 15 minutes on a warm day. You can't say that about a bladdered boat.

It’s a pain but I’m always careful to keep the awkwardly stiff valve caps on and also not let the boat get too hot, especially out of the water. On a warm day you can feel the tubes tighten like a drum in the sun which of course happens to be good for paddling efficiency. The floor tube on my Sunny has a pressure release valve (something never mentioned in the specs and not found on the latest Sunnys). This is to do with the vulnerability of the I-beam floor which could separate under pressure (explained here). The valve purges with the heat which means it's often a bit soft in the cool morning following a hot day. The handy thing with the relief valve on the Sunny is that it makes a good guide to how hard you ought pump up the boat. At whatever leg pressure the valve starts airing off, that's the same or a-bit-more pressure to put in the sides. As I mention about viz a re: rigidity: topping up the floor chamber once the boat has been in the water a few minutes, cooled and so lost a little pressure, may improve rigidity. As it warms the relief valve will purge.

The valves are very easy to operate (apart from the stiff valve caps) and reliable but I do wonder about fitting some nicer Leafield C7s which would be nicer to cap - or even a Leafield A6 PR with auto pressure relief so you need never worry about your boat bursting in the sun (as I allowed to happen to my Java...). Now you can see I'm just inventing unnecessary mods. Next I'll be repainting it.

Apart from crossing a reef in Australia, I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve been seriously worried about punctures.

The Bravo footpump (right and plucky mascot of this site) that comes with the boat initially looks a bit crap but has lasted well and IMO beats a handpump if you got a bad back like me. Occasionally the yellow tube splits near either end if packed carelessly so it gets shorter and shorter over the years but still has plenty of length or can be taped up. Also, after 4 years a crease in the back wore through; easily fixed with duct tape. It's a shame the Bravo pump is a tight squeeze into the Gumbag's outer pocket; with some rough treatment the pocket rips off the bag's body.

The other pump you might need, especially when loaded up or out at sea (or both, see Walking with Sharks) is a bailing pump (right). Out here it's not so convenient to flip a loaded boat either in the water or on a distant shore. The Sunny's bendy body and rounded sides tend to swamp easily and although the boat will still float full of water, paddling it in this state would be hard work and not so funny, sonny, if the wind turns offshore or you are plain worn out. They say this pump can purge 30 litres a minute but I found in Shark Bay your arm soon gets tired before a minute's up and 30 litres can wash over the side with one small wave.
In case you have not guessed, in a windprone IK all the more than proper sea kayak, solo at sea is not a good idea.

Paddles
I started with a super cheap 3-piece TNP shovel (blue, below right) but after picking up a much better used 2-piece Lendal Archipelago, (left, white, click for bigger), for Shark Bay in 2006 I decided to splash out as it were, on a decent light paddle which cost more than the Sunny itself: a bent-shaft, adjustable low angle 2-piece Werner Camano (left, orange, click for bigger). I haven't tried many paddles but to me bent shafts make ergonomic sense: it’s just more comfortable to the non--rectilinear human form. I do notice though that when I swap back to the slightly heavier straight Lendal that it has noticeably less flex. I also still have a cheap green plastic TPC guest shovel, sorry, I mean paddle which converts into a pair of canoe paddles. You never know when the mood to canoe may strike.

The Camano is a low-angle paddle but sometimes I think my style is high angle. I find wide, high-sided (and relatively unresponsive) IKs encourage or require this ‘digging’ style anyway - or maybe it's just me. So in the US one time I got myself an adjustable Aqua Bound 4-piece high angle (big blade, black above, click for bigger) Sting Ray in carbon no less (for less than half the price it would have cost in the UK). Weighing under 900g this one feels even more flexy than the Camano, but of course fits right in the bag which the others don't. Of these three my favourite is the Camano because of the bend. The compact and light Aqua Bound would work on a short day trip on public transport and with no load to haul on the water.